Eiffel Tower in Need of Repair 9

[dik]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...epairs-butll-cosmetic-paint-job.html#comments

They need to dig up a good coating specialist.

So strange to see the singularity approaching while the entire planet is rapidly turning into a hellscape. -John Coates

-Dik

 

[TugboatEng]

This is a shareholder issue, not so much engineering. Keep it making money until you can get your own money out.

Riddled with rust does imply structural deficiency. That would be an engineering disaster.

But, now that the post is here and maybe our coatings engineers will be floating around, does anybody have experience with gelled calcium sulfonate based coatings? They seem like they would be ideal for this case as they require minimal prep work and most of the steel is not accessible to tourist's fingers. I'm interested in bringing said coatings into the marine industry.

 

[dik]

Thanks, Tug... just like they should have had sprinklers at Notre Dame...

So strange to see the singularity approaching while the entire planet is rapidly turning into a hellscape. -John Coates

-Dik

 

[spsalso]

I wonder which will fall over first: Eiffel or Millennium Tower.

It's important to remember that the latter was build with 21st Century technology (well, 20th, anyway), as opposed to that old one. Which, by the way, is NOT made of concrete. Sad!

The Eiffel Tower is over a hundred years old! It should be torn down and replaced with affordable housing. With retail on the lower floors. But NO parking!



spsalso

 

[dik]

sps... do you want to start a pool? I fell out on the other engineering site because I suggested a pool for when the US hit their first 100,000 (I think) Covid death...

So strange to see the singularity approaching while the entire planet is rapidly turning into a hellscape. -John Coates

-Dik

 

[TugboatEng]

If you're going to go there, can we include bio engineering on this forum? What a disaster the vaccines ended up being. Only protective against an extinct virus, caused the same symptoms of real infection, and yet here we are still advocating for paying for them. No distinction between deaths with COVID and due to COVID.

Bitter subject. I work in the only county in the USA that has a mask mandate... Quad vaccinated mask wearing Fauci is on his COVID rebound after taking his first round of Paxlovid... I can't even catch the dang virus. It finally made it's round through my company and I got conjunctivitis instead.

 

[hokie66]

The press may be exaggerating a bit about the Eiffel Tower. Fancy that! One thing the tower has in its favor is that it is iron, not steel. Iron is much more resistant to corrosion than carbon steel. But it will still corrode, and needs to be coated. Eiffel recommended coating at a seven year interval. Modern coating should provide improved protection, but the system should be carefully selected by coatings specialists.

 

[Alistair_Heaton]

The vaccines are considered to be an outstanding success. Saved millions of lives.

No major side effects, extremely low adverse effect. 100 times less than the contraceptive pill.

2nd gen in testing for the vector vaccines which is going for a different bit of the virus that the spikes. mRNA vaccines have been re engineered and tested on rats and should be released soon. They are on the test regime the same as the flu vaccine.

And cases of Omicron A5 are rocketing. The old vaccines have zero ability to stop catching it. But significantly reduce fatality rate. But as most have had the virus or already vaccinated the pro's don't think it's worth while doing another round of boosters with mass population. Just targeted groups

 

[Alistair_Heaton]

To be honest I think alot of Parisians would be happy it getting scrapped.

 

[drawoh]

Alistair_Heaton,

The Eiffel Tower is France's answer to the Brooklyn Bridge. Someone is always claiming that they are going to scrap it, and that they are authorized to sell it to you.

--
JHG

 

[cvg]

"The Eiffel Tower is riddled with rust and in drastic need of repairs but will only receive a cosmetic paint job ahead of the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, according to leaked reports. "

"'In an emergency, in some places, a simple coat of paint is just brushed on the existing layers, which are flaking and do not hold,' another anonymous expert warned. "

this is second hand information from unnamed and anonymous sources and from unnamed "reports" published in a rag. I would take this with a few grains of salt

 

[dik]

Hokie... is it wrought iron? This has excellent corrosion resistance. Lindsay's century old wrought water tower is in fair condition. The new steel one, not so good...

So strange to see the singularity approaching while the entire planet is rapidly turning into a hellscape. -John Coates

-Dik

 

[dik]

cvg... I suspect there are some problems and it has been 're-coated' several times. The coating systems appear to be improper and not working.

So strange to see the singularity approaching while the entire planet is rapidly turning into a hellscape. -John Coates

-Dik

 

[LittleInch]

Puddle Iron apparently.

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp....rust-and-in-need-of-repair-leaked-reports-say

Remember - More details = better answers
Also: If you get a response it's polite to respond to it.

 

[cvg]

dik
according to the article, it has been painted at least 20 times which indicates a fairly good maintenance schedule (at least for the painting). and I would expect it does have some problems, but would really like to see an engineering inspection report, not an editorial piece in the daily mail...

 

[dik]

to me... painting it 20 times is not a good maintenance schedule. It only represents a poor choice of coating material.

So strange to see the singularity approaching while the entire planet is rapidly turning into a hellscape. -John Coates

-Dik

 

[dik]

Thanks LI... I'd not heard the term puddle iron (sheltered existance, I assume) "Puddle iron was the first inexpensive wrought iron to be produced on an industrial scale. The puddling process was invented by Henry Cort in 1784 and is considered a key technology of the industrial revolution of the 19th century. At the end of the 19th century, the process was slowly replaced by the Bessemer and Siemens-Martin processes."

So strange to see the singularity approaching while the entire planet is rapidly turning into a hellscape. -John Coates

-Dik

 

[TugboatEng]

Looks like it's all done by hand and with brushes.

https://www.painttalk.com/threads/repainting-the-eiffel-tower.47985/

That means SSPC-3 for prep and no control of mils during paint application. That would explain the frequent repaint interval.

 

[JohnRBaker]

One thing that you have to keep in mind is that when the city of Paris agreed to host the 1889 Worlds Fair, the understanding was that the structures built for the fair, including the Eiffel Tower, would eventually be dismantled and removed after the fair closed. However, due to the cost of erecting the tower, Eiffel and his investors cut a deal with the city that for the next 20 years they would receive all the profit from any revenues generated by tourism and the concessions located in the tower. After that the city would take full possession and do with it as they wish. But that still meant that when it was being designed and erected, that the plan was that it was only temporary. This may have led to certain shortcuts having been taken with respect to any long term plans for maintenance and repair.

Of course, after 20 years, the tower had became an even more famous symbol of Paris (although not all Parisians would agreed with that) and so the plans for dismantling it were abandoned altogether.

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without

 

[CWB1]

If they need to subsidize a touch-up, I’d love to see a recreation of Bill Overstreet’s flight underneath.